CHICAGO—As reported last week in GlobeSt.com, commercial real estate investors that had looked with some trepidation on the new administration have seen some of their worst fears allayed. The 2016 campaign was filled with rhetoric about immigration, trade wars and Muslim bans, but that talk wasn't much help when it was time to find workable legislative majorities or design policies that could pass constitutional muster. As a result, the avalanche of news coming out of Washington, which often feels like turmoil, partially conceals the stability in many important areas of the economy.

The failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, for example, means the world of healthcare real estate won't be roiled by sudden changes. Considerations like that are very important to real estate investors, not least because they need to see farther ahead than others.

“There is a lot of lead time in real estate,” Allan Swaringen, president and chief executive officer of JLL Income Property Trust, tells GlobeSt.com. Even industrial buildings, the quickest type of development, take about 12 months to plan, design and build. Apartment buildings can take two to three years, and major office developments between five and six years. “It creates a whole new level of risk.”